France's President Francois Hollande has accused the US of double standards in throwing multi-billion euro fines at European banks while complaining about European Commission investigations into US companies.

Speaking to French magazine L'Obs he explained that this was a key reason why he could not support a European free trade deal with the US.

Hollande is six months away from a Presidential election and his comments come days after a French parliamentary report criticised the US over its increasingly aggressive use of extraterritorial laws that had led to billions of euros being levied on European countries.